County seeks comments on effects of proposed homes

An environmental impact report on the proposed 112-home development north of Via Del Agua says residents in neighboring communities would be better off during the next fire because the project would remove brush from the hillside.

A traffic light would have to be installed at Via Del Agua and Yorba Linda Boulevard to address the effects of additional cars going to and from the Cielo Vista housing tract.

The public has until Dec. 23 to submit comments on these findings to the county.

Sage Community Group of Newport Beach proposes building two clusters of homes up to two stories tall on 47.7 acres. The larger cluster of 95 homes would be accessed though a single road onto Via Del Agua near Via De La Roca. The remaining 17 homes would enter and exit onto San Antonio Road via Aspen Way.

“There would be a beneficial cumulative impact with the project and the adjacent Esperanza Hills project in reducing the potential for exposure to wildland fires on existing residential (neighborhoods),” PRC Services Corp., an environmental consulting firm, said in the report.

Homeowner Brian Gass said he believes this argument is dead wrong.

“These homes, no matter what, are never going to be fireproof,” Gass said. “They're just going to provide more fuel for the fire.”

Some council members have shared concerns about the effects of both Cielo Vista and about 340 homes proposed in the neighboring Esperanza Hills tract.

But the City Council's consensus is that it doesn't have authority to block either project because they are being developed on unincorporated county land.

Even if the city did have more oversight, Mayor Tom Lindsey and council members Craig Young and Gene Hernandez said they are unwilling to put restrictions on the property owners' rights.

At last week's City Council meeting, Young said neighbors of the development wouldn't like his support.

“Property owners' rights apply to all property owners,” he said. “That doesn't mean I get to choose which property owners have rights.”

Hernandez also said it is unlikely a lawsuit to halt the developments would be successful.

Some neighboring homeowners at the meeting were caught off guard by what they believe is a surrender to the developers by the City Council.

“You guys look like you've given up on us,” Gass said.

Gass stood at the back of the chambers for four hours holding a banner reading, “Now is the time! Stop 500 new homes proposed to be built in your backyard.”

“It's not fair to the residents who bought into this Yorba Linda lifestyle,” he said. “I love it and I'm going to fight for it.”

The city is sending a wish list of steps to Supervisor Todd Spitzer that it wants the county to take to limit Cielo Vista's impact on residents.

These include paying a fee to the city if it doesn't dedicate space for parks, a fee to offset the city's needs for affordable housing, a possible reduction in the police services contract, construction of an equestrian staging area that would feed into Chino Hills State Park and funding for the Yorba Linda Public Library.

The environmental impact report outlines various obstacles to development within portions of Cielo Vista's site.

A soil-gas survey revealed the presence of elevated levels of methane in the vicinity of the oil exploration field within the area's boundaries. The report says 19 soil samples were collected to evaluate the impact of the drilling.

“Seventeen of the soil-gas samples contained detectible levels of methane. … Such levels are not considered to be explosively combustible, but nonetheless are considered to be a potential hazard on the site,” the report said.

Building regulations require that no new residence would be developed within 10 feet of abandoned wells and no new residences would be developed within 150 feet of an operational oil well.

A branch of the Whittier fault snakes through the project site, but the fault is within an area that would remain open space.

The Board of Supervisors is expected to vote on the development, but no date has been set.

The earliest construction could commence is early 2014 and would last 21/2 to three years, according to the report.